Chicago Style Workout 2: Commas with Introductory Words and Phrases

Are you ready to work out?

If you need to know The Chicago Manual of Style for your job—or to get a job—it’s a good idea to flex your editing muscles in close engagement with the Manual itself.

Chicago Style Workout 2, “Commas with Introductory Words and Phrases,” centers on sections 6.35–6.39 of CMOS 16. Advanced editors might tackle the exercises cold; learners can study the related sections of the Manualbefore answering the questions. (Tip: You can review section 6.38 in this “Section in the Spotlight” post.)

Subscribers to The Chicago Manual of Style Online may click through to the linked sections of the Manual. (For a 30-day free trial of CMOS Online,click here.)

Remember: The workouts are all about Chicago! If you’re an expert in MLA, AP, or New York Timesstyle, you might be surprised to find that your instincts don’t quite match Chicago’s. That doesn’t mean that your answer is necessarily “wrong”—it just means it isn’t Chicago style.

[Editor’s update: These styles did not change in the 17th edition, although their section numbers may have changed.]

Note: These questions are designed to test knowledge of The Chicago Manual of Style. Other style guides may have different rules and guidelines. The first five items are true/false statements, and the last five ask you to judge whether the example does or does not follow Chicago style.

1. An introductory participial phrase should be set off by a comma unless the sentence is inverted and the phrase immediately precedes the verb.

a. True

b. False

2. An introductory adverbial phrase should always be set off by a comma.

That one was much harder than the last one. I cribbed from CMOS online, though, so I got 100%. Thank goodness these are unlikely to be life-and-death questions out there in the world where I can’t look up the answer when I feel uncertain.

There is no submit button. Having found myself redoing the captcha test, which for some reason is very difficult for me to get through, the only button that appears, and reappears, is the try again button. And that, of course, forces me to try again.